The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to manipulate user interface objects on a display.
Many users rely on electronic computing devices with touch-sensitive surfaces and displays for viewing and manipulating multi-section electronic documents. In these circumstances, users may navigate through an electronic document on the display with gestures on the device's touch-sensitive surface or touch screen. Unfortunately, existing methods for scrolling multi-section documents are cumbersome and inefficient, and often do not result in the display of electronic documents according to a user's desires. In addition, existing methods of scrolling through documents take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.
Accordingly, there is a need for computing devices with faster, more efficient methods and interfaces for scrolling multi-section documents in accordance with heuristics that improve electronic document display. Such methods and interfaces may complement or replace conventional methods for scrolling multi-section documents. Such methods and interfaces reduce the cognitive burden on a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated computing devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.